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Saturday 22 November 2008

Traditional virtues

Ursula Buchan wanders through the Gardens

All over the Great Pavilion, commercial nurseries — Bloms (tulips), Three Counties (aquilegias), Walkers (daffodils) — had erected stands bearing a striking resemblance, in staging at least, to those they put up 20 years ago. The names on the labels may have altered, but unless you are a tulip, aquilegia or daffodil enthusiast, you probably wouldn’t notice.

I have clocked up more than 30 Chelsea, but I cannot remember the Blackmore and Langdon stand of delphiniums and begonias changing in any particular, except in the choice of varieties on show. The arrangement — great spires of delphiniums towering over dumpy, tissue-paper begonias, making a rich mixture of blues and oranges — has probably not altered since 1913, the date of the first Chelsea show. Blackmore and Langdon are one of three firms to have managed almost a century of unbroken exhibiting here, the other two being Hilliers and Notcutts. All three companies were awarded Gold medals this year.

All of which will be reassuring to you, if you gave up visiting Chelsea long ago, because of the crowds or the cost of the train fare, and you have grown to loathe the tired and tiresomely arch coverage on television. In some important ways, the show, and the people involved with staging it, are just as they always were. I’m glad.

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